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IOC president Bach committed to corruption fight

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach, has stressed there was “so far no evidence” of corruption surrounding bidding for this year’s Rio Olympics and the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

French prosecutors investigating corruption allegations against the former head of world athletics have expanded their probe.

With the Rio Games some five months away, the news opens up the possibility of the Olympics now being dragged into a scandal.

Why do we have all these rules in place and why are we making all this effort? Because we know that no government, no institution, no organisation is immune to this evil of corruption

“The IOC has done I think as much as an organisation can do to address the issue of corruption. We have all rules and instruments in place to fight corruption with zero tolerance and we have made the latest updates there following Olympic agenda 2020.

“Why do we have all these rules in place and why are we making all this effort? Because we know that no government, no institution, no organisation is immune to this evil of corruption. Therefore it is the duty and the obligation of an organisation to have robust tools and instruments and rules in place and I think this we have,” Bach said.

The French investigation was opened in December in response to heightened media reports that questioned the way the IAAF awarded its 2021 world championships to the U.S. city of Eugene.

The WADA commission report suggested up to $5 million of sponsorship money may have been a factor in swaying the vote of Diack to vote for Tokyo rather than Istanbul, which declined to pay the money.

Tokyo 2020 organisers in January denied the claim.

“In this case, when the first rumours came up we have addressed WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and the French authorities to provide us with the necessary information.

So far we have no evidence what so ever in this respect and I think you all know that this has just been confirmed by the French authorities in a statement today where they made this clear,” Bach added.